The International House often organizes events and activities for residents. Apart from in-house events (like the coffee&sweets night on Wednesdays and the social games on Fridays), an excursion is scheduled about once a week. Already in the very first days of my stay, my attention had been captured by this announcement:

I did not think about it twice and I immediately signed in: after all Alcatraz – probably the most famous prison in the world – is a must-see here in San Francisco. Plus, an organized trip was very welcome, considering that I have always organized everything on my own in these months.

Let’s start with a couple of pictures from the Bay Bridge, in order to capture SF’s skyline but above all to see where Alcatraz is located: it is the little island on the right, located a couple of kilometers from the shore in front of the Fisherman’s Wharf.

Theoretically, the Golden Gate Bridge should be visible between San Francisco and Alcatraz, but August is famous for being the worst month in terms of foggy conditions, and today is not an exception, as you can (barely) see in this picture.

Indeed, it is already 1 pm: I don’t want to know how it was earlier in the morning… In any case, due to its topography, San Francisco is characterized by different microclimates, so it is quite often the case that the Western blocks next to the Ocean are surrounded by the fog (especially the Sunset District… well-deserved name indeed 🙂 ), while the Eastern parts of the city, i.e. those looking out onto the Bay, can enjoy sunny conditions.

However, let’s not waste time talking about weather conditions or geography: I am now on the ferry and I am about to get onto the island. The I-House has not organized a guided tour, therefore I will take an audio-guide: my suspect is – and I won’t be wrong – that what makes this place special is its history and the anecdotes about it, and not so much what is there to be seen strictly speaking. After all, it was a prison and not the Palace of Versailles!

If you want more info about Alcatraz history – e.g. where the Alcatraz name and The Rock nickname come from or which were the most famous jailbreaks – as usual, you are referred to the Wikipedia webpage.

However, here are some pictures. Let’s start from the outside:

The main body of the prison is of couse very bare inside: there is not much more than a sequence of cells, which by the way are absolutely tiny (about 1.5 x 3 m).

Dressing rooms and showers:

A couple of pictures of the offices and technical rooms:

Here’s the view over San Francisco, which is for sure fantastic, even if I doubt that this was a great consolation for the prisoners!

In the latter picture you can see what I was mentioning above, i.e. the sunny weather on the left (East) and the fog on the right (West).

The dining hall still reports the menu of the last day of activity of the prison: March 21, 1963.

Finally, I report this panel which is very clear in describing what Alcatraz was.

Naturally it is now super late and I have to rush not to miss the ferry! However, I eventually manage to get it and to complete my poorly adventurous… “Escape from Alcatraz” 🙂